Recent News
Five ‘A’ higher pupils up 25 per cent
A record ninety candidates have notched up five higher ‘A’ passes at East Renfrewshire Schools- a 25 per cent increase on 2007’s figures.
One third of the total has been achieved by St Ninian’s High School pupils with 30 hitting the five ‘A” gold standard. The numbers of pupils attaining five ‘A’ highers in the rest of the council’s schools are Barrhead High School, two; Eastwood High School, seven; Mearns Castle High School, 19; St Luke’s High School, three; Williamwood High School 19 and Woodfarm High School 10.
Highers performance is up across the board with the percentage of pupils achieving three or more awards at level 6 or better up by five points from 2007 to 45.5 per cent and those attaining five or more at level 6 or better up by four points to 26.7 per cent. Woodfarm High School, Thornliebank, showed the biggest increase, by boosting its five or more figure for 2007 by 2.5 times to 28.1 per cent for 2008.
Sixty-two per cent of fourth year pupils achieved five of more qualifications at intermediate 2 or above, the best ever figure for the council, up four points from 2007. And a record 24.4 per cent of sixth year pupils achieved one or more advanced highers.
Education convener Councillor Alan Lafferty said: “Once again our school pupils have performed tremendously well and I congratulate them all. The results are a tribute to the hard work they put in, to the professionalism and dedication of our teachers and support staff and to the encouragement that pupils receive from parents. East Renfrewshire schools are consistently improving performance. The highers and advanced higher results are proof positive of the wisdom of moving from standard grade to intermediates while all the results also show the value of our all-through tracking of pupils from primary to the end of secondary school.”
Neilston in the world
The fourth Neilston Live festival of culture and life will kick off on Friday 1 August and run through to Sunday 10 August.
This year’s theme will be Neilston in the world with music, activities, and events celebrating the village’s place in the world past, present and future.
Three free major exhibitions will be held in The Bank on Main Street during the festival. Artists in Exile will feature works from leading international artists currently resident in Scotland.
The Banking on Neilston display will show plans for the renovation of The Bank and Hidden Histories: Wartime Memories will highlight local stories of the war years.
Music lovers will be in for a treat with a jazz session in the Traveller’s Rest in the first evening of the festival, the popular opening ceilidh will be held in St Thomas’s Church Hall on Saturday 2 August and a singing workshop in The Bank on Sunday 3 August.
There will also be an evening of Scottish music, Roots and Hoots IV, in the Crofthead Bowling Club starring Mary K Burke and Finlay McDonald and his band.
Neilston Parish Church will hold a Classics in the Kirk afternoon on Sunday 10 August and that evening St Thomas’s will be the venue for a Night at the Musicals, a fundraiser for Lourdes Theatre Group.
Local studies librarian Amanda Robb is also hosting a session on Thursday 7 August in Neilston library on how to trace your ancestors.
From Monday to Friday there are various carnival workshops in both the Masonic halls and the leisure centre. A tea dance will also be held in St Thomas’s Church Hall on Tuesday 5 August.
Local librarian Joyce Wallace will tell the fascinating story of Neilston’s wartime Norwegian refugees who lived in a camp in the village on Tuesday 5 August in the library.
The ever popular parade takes place on Saturday 9 August and will start off from The Bank at 12 noon and make its way along Main Street, round High Street, down Station Road and back on to Main Street.
Barfest, the Neilston Live’s festival fringe will feature live music from local bands including the Scruffs, The Alans, Bad Medicine and Kazoo plus solo acts such as Andy Lindsay, Andy McGarvie and Chas Cunningham.
Festival convener Laura Carsewell said: “It is our aim through activities like the festival to enable people to thrive and have fun in Neilston, mix and enjoy each other’s company and share their talents. So please support the festival and help make that goal come true.”
Hot dogs
The current hot weather can make life rather uncomfortable for most of us humans but East Renfrewshire Council’s environmental health bosses have issued pointers to pet owners on how to make their pooches and moggies as comfortable as possible during the warmer summer months.
They suggest that if you have to go out to the shops or to visit someone you should leave your dog at home where he can lie in the cool of the shade. Even if you park your car in the shade and there's a nice breeze blowing outside, the temperature inside a car can shoot up to dangerous levels within minutes even with the windows down. So if you must take your dog make sure you leave the window slightly open.
Unlike humans, pets cannot perspire to cool themselves. The movement of air into and out of the lungs allows them to maintain their normal body temperature. Panting and salivation are outward signs that your pet is overheating.
Dogs and cats need to have a cool place to stay when the summer temperatures soar, either inside or out. When it's really hot, the shade from a tree will not keep your pet cool enough. He needs a doghouse or other shelter to protect from the heat. Dogs and cats can get sunburned just like people. Their ears and noses, which are not protected by thick fur, are especially susceptible.
Make sure your pet always has access to cool, clean water, especially in the summer heat. Refill overturned bowls and freshen water. But never give your pet ice water, which can shock the system and cause severe upsets.
Carefully go over your pet's body at least once a week to check for fleas, ear mites and tiny bumps or cuts. Take your pet to the vet for a summer checkup, and use a good flea and tick repellent that your veterinarian recommends.
If you plan to take your pet on a long car trip, take him on several short trips to condition him for the journey. Travel can be very stressful for a pet, so try to eliminate as much of the stress as possible. When taking your dog in the car, have your pet ride completely inside the car with you, just like any other member of the family. Its not recommended to let your dog poke its head out the car window as they are in danger of injury from debris embedding itself in their eyes, nostrils, ear canals and throat.
Taking your dog for a walk should be cut back during the summer months. So limit taking your pooch out to early morning or later in the evening.
Sports camps
As part of East Renfrewshire Council's summer activities programme sports camps have been held at a variety of locations.
These budding Rafael Nadals and Venus Williams were taking part in the mini tennis sports camp at Eastwood High School's new sports hall.
Photograph above: Back row: Molly Ward (6) Giffnock; Ian McDonagh (5) Giffnock; Andrew Cramb (5) Glasgow; Declan Reid (5) Newton Mearns
Front row: Samantha Waugh (5) Glasgow; Max O’Donnell (5) Glasgow; Aalia Shah (5) Clarkston; Johnny Campbell (5) Netherlee.
On the kids football course five to eight year olds enjoy a football course at Barrhead Sports Centre.
The course is run by SFA coaches Gareth Menzies and Jane Somerville.
Photograph above: St Mirren fan Jack McFarlane (6) takes a penalty as brothers Matthew and Andrew Chapman (4 and 5) share goalkeeping duties.
These budding golfers were taking part in the mini golf sports camp at Eastwood High School's new sports hall.
Some of them had rather colourful hairdos as the day we visited was Crazy Hair Day.
Photograph above: Josh Carson (7) Netherlee; Juliet Rose (5) Clarkston; Eilidh Stewart (9) Newton Mearns; Robbie Stewart (12) Newton Mearns; Ben Provan (6) Newton Mearns; and Bess McMahon (7) Newton Mearns.
Hippo hippo hooray recycle today
Over 36 million Argos catalogues, equal in weight to a small army of hippos, are out there waiting to be recycled and made into newsprint instead of being dumped in a landfill site.
This week the retail giant announced that its new catalogue is now available, so the old ones will be destined for the bin.
But East Renfrewshire Council is urging residents to make sure that they recycle their old Argos catalogues by putting them in their white sacks.
There are a whopping 36 million catalogues in circulation and if all of these were to be recycled, the total tonnage would exceed the weight of about 72,000 hippos.
Environment convener Councillor Eddie Phillips said: “Weighing in at 2 kg each, it’s no wonder that we are keen to encourage people to recycle their old catalogues. It is such a waste to see these go to landfill when they can be accepted by a paper mill which recycles them to make newsprint paper.”
“Even if we can recycle a fraction of these catalogues we will prevent a substantial amount of unnecessary resources being wasted in landfill.”
Old catalogues can be recycled by placing them in the white sack provided to residents for the fortnightly kerbside recycling service or can be taken to recycling points throughout the area.
For more information on waste and recycling services please visit www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk/recycler
And...... ACTION!
Calling all budding Spielbergs or Tarantinos. Here is your chance to do something with all those hours of video you have filmed on your summer holidays and the dozens of tapes you have shot at Christmas, birthday parties or the wee one’s dancing display.
East Renfrewshire Council’s libraries service will run its popular digital video editing and DVD production course at Busby Library from Thursday 21 August.
The aim of the class is to enable participants to produce a film from raw footage in their camera and to burn this on to a DVD.
Course tutor Aly Stewart will cover transferring footage from camera to PC and by using Pinnacle software will show students how to edit, add special effects, titling, voiceover and music. He will also look at options for saving the finished production and presentation of the end result.
Aly said: “There are lots of people who have captured family celebrations or their holidays on their camcorders but they don’t know how to take it from there. We will show you how to select the best footage and edit it into a viewable programme you can show the rest of the family and friends. You can even add music and a commentary.”
The next course will run from Thursday 21 August until Thursday 2 October. There will not be a class on Thursday 11 September. The two hour sessions start at 6.30pm. The course costs £60 for the six weekly classes.
Course organiser Caroline Thompson said: “It is our intention to continue to run these classes so I’m happy also to hear from anyone who is interested but cannot make the above dates.”
If you are interested in the course, contact Caroline on 0141 577 4992 or email her at caroline.thompson@eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk
Photograph above:
Members of the second digital video editing and DVD production course Elspeth MacKinnon, Bill MacKenzie and Sandra Hanna received their certificates from course tutor Aly Stewart.
Be Our Eyes and Ears
East Renfrewshire Council is on the lookout for 16 new sets of eyes and ears.
For the council is recruiting community wardens to work across the area on community safety. The wardens will patrol the streets of East Renfrewshire and they will have more powers.
The strengthened service will crack down on litter, fly tipping, dog fouling, smoking and noisy neighbours and will issue fixed penalty fines. The service will operate 24 hours-a-day and take over security of council premises currently provided by private contractors, freeing up £45,000.
Transferring an out-of-hours noise nuisance investigation service currently provided by Glasgow City Council under contract will save a further £120,000, with all savings ploughed into the extension of the warden service.
And as well as an extra 16 community wardens the council is hiring two senior wardens to oversee the essential safety work and three part time CCTV control room operators.
The moves come as part of a shake-up of the council’s community safety services. Further improvements include transferring community alarm and lone worker services from contractors, in-house to the council’s Thornliebank control room, employing three extra part-time control room staff, and improvements to CCTV on council properties.
Council leader Councillor Jim Fletcher said: “There has long been a demand for warden services and 24-hour cover across the council area and by redirecting existing funding we have been able to achieve that.
“The strengthened warden team will mean improved safety and security for residents, communities and council properties and the transfer of services such as community alarms in-house represents a more effective use of resources.
“It also allows us to crack down on litter bugs, dog fouling and noisy neighbours by authorising the whole warden team to issue fixed penalty fines.
“This is a real opportunity for people to join a council that takes community safety seriously, that has been praised for its pioneering approaches to reducing youth crime in the area and that takes a real pride in our work looking after the safety of our residents,” added Councillor Fletcher.
For more about the community warden, senior community warden or control room operator vacancies visit the council’s recruitment pages or phone the council’s recruitment line on 0141 577 3001.
Photograph above:
Community Wardens on their bicycles.
A Model For Reducing Youth Crime
East Renfrewshire is the model for how youth, gang and knife crime could be tackled across the country.
That’s the findings from a study into the council’s pioneering approach to addressing youth crime and anti social behaviour.
The research, carried out for the Scottish Government, reveals that the approach, which brings together the local agencies and services, has reduced crime levels across the council area.
People caught with offensive weapons, including knives, is down 21% from 122 in 2005 to 96 in 2007.
Referrals to the children’s reporter have dropped by 31% from 212 in 2005 to 145 in 2007.
Vandalism was down from 1,846 incidents in 2005 to 1,563 incidents in 2007. There was a reduction in persistent offenders during the period studied with East Renfrewshire having one of the lowest and most improved results in Scotland.
The model adopted by East Renfrewshire Council is based on a successful Danish system for bringing together all local agencies involved in anti-social behaviour and youth offending.
The school, social work, police and community (SSPC) tackles aims to create strong communities and help families to break the intergenerational cycle of disadvantage by focussing on tackling anti-social behaviour early on coupled with diversionary tactics.
And now researchers are recommending that this model, because of its success in reducing anti-social behaviour and youth offending, could be a “…useful and interesting model for the government to consider”.
The operational ‘engine room ‘ of the SSPC approach is the young person’s referral group - a multi agency group led by social work and attended by the reporter to the children’s panel along with all relevant agencies – police, youth services, schools, housing, community safety and voluntary organisations.
East Renfrewshire’s health and social care convener, Councillor Douglas Yates, explained: “The group is able to offer guidance and assistance to young people who may be flirting with crime and their families. For example, the police may refer a young person who is a new face in a gang which can help to prevent a bystander from taking the next steps to becoming a perpetrator.
“The East Renfrewshire model has encouraged the professionals from all agencies and organisations to think and act outside their usual professional boundaries to deliver a better service to the young people, their families and communities. That’s an approach that will have long term benefits for the residents of our area.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said: “Young people are more likely to be a victim of crime than they are to commit a crime. We know that the vast majority are well behaved and a credit to their communities but we do need to tackle the small minority that cause problems.
“Our recently published Youth Justice Framework set out our approach for trying to make sure fewer young people are affected by the three ‘Ds’ of drink, drugs and deprivation that lead to a life of crime. It’s based on prevention and early intervention with a focus on all relevant agencies working together to protect young people.
“The school, social work, police and community project pioneered in East Renfrewshire is an example of this type of approach.
“It’s great that this evaluation gives us clear evidence that early and effective action by different professionals working together can have a massive impact on the lives of young people and communities. I hope other councils can learn from this approach and help make sure it can benefit as many young people as possible.”
Three campus cops were appointed as part of the project. The officers are based in secondary schools in East Renfrewshire and provide a crucial link between community and school – sharing information, addressing issues of violence, cyber-bullying, anti social behaviour, drugs and gang related issues.
They link between the school and the young persons referral group and also support other agencies in engaging with hard to reach young people through out of hours diversionary activities - such as special Duke of Edinburgh schemes.
A support worker was also hired with the joint skills of youth and family engagement.
Quotes from interviewees in the research report:
“In cases of tragedies, investigations usually find lack of effective joint working and information sharing as contributory factors. That is now minimised in East Renfrewshire”
“The teacher is there to give a quick resume of attendance and behaviour whereas I would have to request a school report, get it in writing etc and that can take time...” (Reporter to the children’s panel)
“A much smaller percentage of my case load is made up of young people subject to supervision orders so early intervention seems to be having an impact” (social worker).
Conclusions from researchers:
The research was undertaken by Blake Stevenson Research Company during the period of January – May 2008.
The following is extracted from their research report:
“There was consensus across all interviewees that there has been a shift in organisational behaviour and culture as a result of the ethos and work of the YPRG and this has led to more effective and efficient use of resources. It can put support in place more swiftly than the Hearing system can. Individuals at the YPRG can commit to an intervention...individual professionals put themselves forward to assist with young people. If they had been limiting themselves to their strictly professional role, they might not have seen this as their job. There is little delay between the young person being referred and the group discussing their case and arriving at a decision”
“Shared aims, practice and ethos are at the core of what is making the SSPC approach and the YPRG operate successfully”
“The Cops are clearly functioning extremely effectively and making an important contribution to an integrated, preventative approach to anti social behaviour and youth offending. Although based in schools, it is the strength of the Cops in linking the school to community and to social work and other agencies involved which is key. They should continue to be based in schools but, as now, not ‘belong’ to the school”
“The Young Person’s Support Worker is a key role in relation to the YPRG and young people, working in a non stigmatising way...”
“In terms of the National Audit Office’s Framework for assessing value for money, it would seem that as a result of the establishment of SSPC, for most mainstream agencies there has been an economy because they have not had to invest in additional staffing; there has been efficiency in that staff are working together and sharing a workload thus inputting less and achieving more by the way of output and the SSPC model has been effective”.. “In some areas, particularly that of joint working, it has been exceptional”
“The project is a good fit with partner activity...strategically with prevention and integration...with problem solving, early intervention and violence reduction strategies of Strathclyde Police...with prevention strategies of the Fire and Rescue Service...This evaluation has found that the YPRG model is an excellent example of the GIRFEC (‘Getting It Right for Every Child’ Government priority policy) approach in practice, that is all agencies taking responsibility for ensuring that all young people are safe, respected, cared for and so on..The children and young people are put at the centre of the approach. It is a key strength of the group, and exemplary practice, that the members do not say ‘that’s not my remit’...although ostensibly concerned with the young person, it is evident that there is a whole family approach... ”
“ (SSPC has) achieved a rationalised approach to young people exhibiting anti social and offending behaviour across council departments, providing a measured and comprehensive response to community and agency concerns..Intervene in young people’s lives with clear purpose, effectively and with the least intrusion necessary”
“It would seem, therefore, that the prevention and early intervention approach being undertaken in East Renfrewshire Council has had an effect on more serious young offenders and early indicators are that it would seem to be having an effect on less serious offenders...it would seem..that there has been a reduction in anti social behaviour and youth offending.. a useful and interesting model for the government to consider”
Research Reports
Evaluation of SSPC Project Final Report (PDF 473kb)
Evaluation of SSPC Final Report - Technical Appendix (PDF 153kb)
An Afternoon with Jeffrey Deaver
International bestselling thriller writer Jeffery Deaver visits East Renfrewshire on Sunday 27 July.
Deaver, whose new novel, The Broken Window, is published on July 24, will appear at Eastwood Park Theatre where he will read from his latest novel The Broken Window. After taking questions from the audience he will sign copies of his book.
He has written 23 novels, sold over 20 million books worldwide and has been a Sunday Times bestseller in this country with the last 10 books.
Deaver’s most popular character is Lincoln Rhyme, a quadriplegic forensic detective, who has appeared so far in seven of his novels and was played by Denzel Washington in the feature film version of The Bone Collector.
The last Lincoln Rhyme novel The Cold Moon reached the number one position in both the UK hardback and paperback bestseller lists.
The Eastwood Park Theatre event is the author’s only West of Scotland appearance on his current UK tour.
An Afternoon with Jeffrey Deaver,
3.00pm 27 July 2008,
Eastwood Park Theatre.
Tickets £5.00 / £3.50
0141 577 4970
Driving assessments
Staff from the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) recently attended a seminar in Eastwood House and gave a presentation on the provision of driving assessments for taxi and private hire car drivers.
Representatives from Scottish councils including East Renfrewshire Council, Perth & Kinross Council, South Ayrshire Council, East Dunbartonshire Council and South Lanarkshire Councils attended the presentation.
The assessment scheme has been widely adopted in England and Wales, with some authorities requiring all applicants, new and renewal, to undergo the assessment prior to granting of a license.
Other councils participating in the scheme use the assessment system as an additional disciplinary measure for drivers who appear before their committees in regard to license endorsements/driving offences.
Photograph above:
Back row: ERC councilors Charlie Gilbert, Stewart Miller, Alastair Carmichael (all East Renfrewshire) with Alan Kelley and Ian Forrest from Perth and Kinross Council.
Front row: Brian Kilpatrick (ERC), Peter Kelly (East Dunbartonshire Council), Donna Scobie (South Ayrshire Council) Andy Mitchell (DSA) and David McPherson (South Lanarkshire Council).